


Search and Romance

by kingkongbway



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Secret Identity, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:46:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23545594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingkongbway/pseuds/kingkongbway
Summary: The Doctor has got to find Donna.(An alternate version of fanwit's Love and Found.)
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, The Doctor & Donna Noble, The Doctor/Donna Noble, Thirteenth Doctor/Donna Noble
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	Search and Romance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fanwit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanwit/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Love and Found](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22652299) by [fanwit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanwit/pseuds/fanwit). 



“Donna!?” the Doctor called, skidding down the hallway. Things weren't at everyone's-about-to-die levels of urgent quite yet, but they should act fast all the same. And it would probably get Donna moving more if she could hear that they’d run into another problem. “Donna?”

His trainers slid everywhere on the tiled floor as he turned a corner, why did the Reteins have to keep everything so smooth? Well, obviously, because they had to ooze everywhere and didn’t deal well with friction, but facts are inconvenient when you’re losing traction trying to run so you can find your companion who has mysteriously disappeared, “Donna! We’re having a situation!”

The chief of the Reteins was not going to be happy if he let whoever was freezing them get away with it because he couldn’t find Donna. Where had she gotten off to? Come to think of it, when was the last time he’d seen her? It was her that had asked to come to this planet in the first place, which was maybe kind of strange in hindsight, even though she’d made it sound believable enough with whatever she’d said about wanting to see “slime aliens that act like mood rings” after she’d read it in whatever guide book. He hadn’t let her get kidnapped, had he? He thought he was past the days of letting that happen.

“Donna!” he shouted with more urgency. He wasn't going to lose her like this.

The Doctor sped down the twisting hallway calling her name, ignoring the way his feet slipped across the floor. Then he heard voices and froze. Or, well, actually, he didn’t stop moving for a good few feet as his shoes regained their grip on the ground, but he did certainly try to freeze. Someone was whispering in the cupboard to his right. “... Donna?” he asked, tightening his fists. The whispers ceased.

The muscles in his legs tensed, ready for fight or flight, depending on what was behind the door. He hoped it was Donna, but he had to be ready in case it wasn’t. He’d been the victim of one too many ambushes to fall for that. At least, he hoped he had. Maybe one more would do it.

He was about to fling the door open when he heard shuffling inside the cupboard and prepared himself.

The door opened a teensy bit and an angular face peeked out. They made eye contact and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. “Donna, thank goodness, you wouldn’t believe what’s going on right now, c’mon, we’re gonna have to run.”

“Er, well, maybe I could, I don’t know, sit this one out? You’re plenty capable yourself, spaceboy, I’m sure you can handle it.”

“Oh, thank you, I, er, what? You want to what?”

She leaned back, opening the door just a little more, and the Doctor became increasingly aware of how much she’d kept it closed. Was she hiding something? _Had_ she been kidnapped? Was she sending him a coded message so her captors wouldn’t pick up on it? He resisted the urge to pull his sonic. He didn't want to get anyone thinking he had a weapon. She drummed her fingers lightly on the edge of the door. “Oh, you know, just… thought maybe I’d take a little break. Hang out with the mood ring aliens? Not almost die fighting off some outer space dunce with a laser gun?”

This wasn’t making any sense. That didn’t sound like Donna. The Doctor ran a trillion variables through his head. “Hang out with the Reteins? In a cupboard?”

“Er, it’s the safest place from whatever’s going on out there, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

Donna bit her lip without responding.

There was something dodgy going on here. He could taste it. This wasn’t like Donna.

The Doctor shrugged and turned to walk down the hallway. He noted the way the tension released from Donna’s body. That was his cue. He flipped back around, pressed in, and forced the door open.

Donna stumbled back, and into… a lanky blonde woman? A very surprised-looking lanky blonde woman with bright braces and a trenchcoat? It was a very good outfit, maybe one he wished he’d come up with, but not quite what he expected from a kidnapper.

“Doctor!” Donna breathed, sounding very much like Donna, and very much annoyed, which was also very much like Donna when you thought about it.

He jingled around in his pockets for his sonic, which he seemed to have misplaced, that was really the issue with extra-dimensional pockets, wasn’t it, you put something slightly to the left, and _BAM!_ it might as well be back on Gallifrey for all you could find it. He should’ve grabbed it earlier, but that would have tipped off Donna.

“Oi, Doctor, knock it off, don’t you go sonicking her, she’s harmless.” Donna gave him a pointed look.

He stopped. “You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, don’t be daft, she’s my… She’s my girlfriend.”

Oh. _Oh._ That explained why Donna was acting so suspicious, she wanted… Well, the Doctor didn’t need to be thinking about all that. He coughed with embarrassment and leaned faux-casually against the doorframe. “Oh. Sorry about all that, then. I was worried you’d been--er, well, I guess it doesn’t matter. It, uh--” He straightened up abruptly and leaned in, smiling. “Nice to meet you, Donna’s girlfriend, I’m the Doctor!”

Donna’s eyes widened and she shot her girlfriend a concerned look, he’d have to check in about that later, but the girlfriend didn’t seem at all fazed. She beamed back and outstretched her hand. “Hello, Doctor, I’m Doc… tor Jane. Doctor Jane. That’s my name, my name is Jane and I have a PhD, which makes me a doctor.”

“Doctor Jane!” He clasped her hand and shook it. And then he thought, wasn’t it a bit strange that Donna would meet her girlfriend on a different planet in the middle of nowhere? Her girlfriend couldn’t be human, could she? Oh, he wished Donna had let him sonic her. “Nice to meet you, Doctor Jane. I guess I should get going, then. Leave you both to it.”

Doctor Jane shook her head seriously, and said, “Oh, don’t worry about that, Doctor. I can see Donna later, I think she’d best go help you. Sounds serious, all this, doesn’t it?”

The Doctor looked back at Donna, who was now giving her girlfriend a somewhat incredulous look. “You think I should what?” she said, in classic Donna fashion.

“Well," the Doctor offered, "you know we work better together."

“Oi, don’t you get involved with this, you just said you’d do it yourself!”

“That was because I thought you were going to be busy with your girlfriend!”

“I was going to be busy with my girlfriend, before you came barging in on us like we're committing a crime!”

Just then, the facility shook with the rumble of… something.

All three of them froze. The Doctor looked up. “That didn’t sound good.”

“Alright, fine, yeah, I’ll go,” Donna said, already pushing past him out of the closet. They quickly fell into stride bolting down the hallway in the opposite direction he’d come. The Doctor and Donna off to save the day together. When the Doctor glanced back over his shoulder, he saw Donna’s girlfriend leaning against the doorframe, looking after them with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> YES, fanwit posted ages before me, but we wrote these the same day!


End file.
